I had really hoped that the growth of the game in the 17er version will finally be handled half-robustly. This, however, is clearly not the case, as my own experience as well as many letters with the desire for the GrowthManager show. So here it is again: The mod, which one should not really need.
Function:

At midnight, all the fruit varieties that have become "due" during the day are incremented by the growthManager by one step. If the fruit variety had grown more than once in the course of the day, it would grow by as many steps. The shift of the growth to midnight can also be switched off (see above).

The growing fruits and progress are displayed graphically. However, the whole thing also takes on a 4x map only a few seconds.

Loading / saving during such growth is harmless and also an MP join during the growth is covered by the script. Otherwise, the growth is hard clock-driven and thus deterministically robust and without further need for MP support.

The dripping can still be switched on and off in the game menu. The growth speed selector is disabled when the growthManager is enabled.

Well-known phenomenon: when dripping is switched on, then the fields of the AI farmers also wither. I have not found a way to avoid this. I recommend the nonsense simply switch off if one wants to use the growthManager.
Installation:

This is quite simple: The ZZZ_growthManager.zip in the mods folder. Done.
Uninstallation:

Remove the ZZZ_growthManager.zip from the mods folder. Files do not have to be deleted other than in LS15.
Configuration:

Credits:
Modell: Textur: Script: upsidedownIdee / Konzept: upsidedownTester:Sonstige: Grafiken und GUI-Programmierung: JakobT